I’ve received a lot of emails and messages about what I’ve been focused on for 2019.

Did I set resolutions? What are my goals? What have I been up to? Am I doing Coach Taylor’s Health Odyssey ? What am I working on?

With the passing of my Mom just a week ago, I have been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish, what my goals are for this year and really, what our purpose is when it comes to our business, coaching and overall mission.

For my first post of this year I wanted to focus on what I have set out to accomplish this year and the goals I set for myself in December of last year.

Here is my list of how I’m going to take every thing you “should do” according to most fitness dogma and why it is important to learn about why following what “they say” can lead us down a path to frustration.

1 – “Eat small meals and snacks throughout the day.”

This is actually a system of nutrition coaching we use to teach! It WAS what the science had told us for many years WAS better for our health.

The idea was that if you ate smaller frequent meals you would be more satisfied and therefore not feel deprived during the day, allowing better control with your caloric intake.

Is it realistic to eat 6 small meals a day? Does eating a “snack” of 6 almonds and half of an apple REALLY satisfy you? OR does it just lead to overconsumption, inconvenience and more frustration. What I know and what I can tell you is that I have never (in 20 years in fitness) had someone try intermittent fasting with good coaching and not feel better, feel less frustrated, see better results AND feel less stressed and overwhelmed with their eating. Myself included.

2 – “Take REST days and days off.”

This year as part of my commitment to our Taylored Training Warrior Academy I am moving EACH and EVERY day! January required a small goal of 1 Turkish get up/side and 2 push-ups, this month it is 2 TGU’s/side and 4 push-ups…you might see where we are going with this! Even if I don’t do a full training session, I incorporate movement into my day EVERY day and I haven’t felt this good in years. Yesterday included: 15 minutes on my pilates reformer around lunch time, my daily walk with our dogs and then after I finished a private training session I did 2-3 minutes on the indian clubs, bottoms up turkish get-ups and spent some time to design some new kettlebell flow for our programming. Even despite my 6am-6pm work day, I made movement happen! NO. Our bodies don’t need a “rest day” in fact, they operate better with more movement and purposeful well crafted training.

3 – “Strength train with weight machines or with barbells to increase strength like: deadlifts, squats, bench press and military press to get stronger.”

Yes, it’s true. I did at one point train like this in my teens…

I haven’t done traditional lifting in years or machine training (which I did used to do in my teens) for many years. The last time I did a bench press or barbell back squat was probably at least 2 years ago (more likely three)!

I train on my pilates reformer nearly everyday to work on my mobility and stability, I use the steel mace to help improve my shoulder and back health, as well as the TRX, kettlebells, dumbbells and the vipr. I box from time to time, do a lot of bodyweight mobility work and have started practicing the hacky sack (which I’m not great at, but learning!).

I don’t believe it’s ‘wrong’ to train these big lifts, but focusing just on more and more weight isn’t getting our population any healthier and moving better, so no, I don’t think it’s really working.

I am 39 years old and the stronger and most fit I’ve ever been. I wake up and can touch my toes, don’t have back pain and I’m working towards new movement and strength goals everyday and I love it.

And no, a bench press isn’t necessary in order to be strong and fit.

4 – “When you hit a certain age your mobility just ‘goes’”.

As I just mentioned I have some pretty BIG goals for this year which include doing a pistol squat, reclaiming my splits (it’s been a few years…) and next month I am start my training on the parallete bars as well as continuing to up my bodyweight ‘animal flow’ game. (just google search if anything I just said makes no sense..lol).

I HATE when people say, “I’m just getting older” “It’s what happens when you get old”.

FACE PALM.

No, you make choices everyday that will affect your health. We all can make different choices to make our health improve as we age.

Trust me, I used to consume a lot of quest bars and protein shakes for years. As someone who used to always coach and practice peri and post workout supplement usage, I haven’t had any supplements in about a year and will continue this practice for the year. In all honestly, the more I have read and researched supplements and the supplement industry, the more I see them for what they are, products that are sold with a lot of empty promises. Our bodies were designed to eat real food, so we should.

There you have it!

What I am working on this year and if you’d like to join me to improve your health this year I am starting my own coaching group where we can discuss ALL things related to women’s health at any age and stage in life!

I read this article this morning and the very first paragraph stuck a chord,

”

It’s probably not a surprise that I spend a significant amount of time thinking about why some of my clients and our members at the gym absolutely crush their goals while others have a difficult time creating any significant or consistent change.”

It was like someone jumped into my mind.

100% this is one of my biggest “why” questions I ask myself on a daily basis. It’s why I make a daily commitment of reading, researching and analyzing everything on nutrition, fitness and movement for almost two decades. YES, it is also why I left my full-time job, left a great place to work, left a super secure paycheque and pension to throw myself into the roller coster ride of being an entrepreneur. **PS While you might think, oh it must always be fun because roller coasters are fun and give you a sense of true freedom…. the flip side is that sometimes you also find yourself with sweaty palms, wanting to get off and could throw up at any given moment. The roller coaster analogy is a good one for any future entrepreneurs out there.

This article How to be Successful at Anythingby Amanda Perry is a great read. She was bang on with this list and I encourage you to check out her full article and give it some quality thinking time today.

Here is her list:

1. Successful people are consistent.

It’s why we created our unique system at Taylored Trainingwith no booked sessions so our members could BE more consistent. We knew the reality that ‘life happens’ so making a set appointment for something as important as taking care of your health and well-being wasn’t sustainable. It is why we transformed our business and training model. We theorized, and now know, that having extreme flexibility is a proven way to facilitate a higher level of consistency for our members.

2. Successful people trust the process.

This is my favourite exercise (see below). It’s called a Turkish Get-up. Most of our members (both in-studio and online) really hate it but I understand why. It’s freaking hard, it’s awkward, it’s super challenging and actually very technical making it complex and at times frustrating to learn and master. It’s by far one of THE best exercises you should be doing as it works almost EVERY major component for your fitness: grip strength, shoulder mobility, shoulder stability, full-body strength, core strength, mobility, unilateral strength, movement and coordination OH! and getting up off the ground, which is a Super handy life skill, especially for the 80+ crowd. The picture below is of one of our most successful clients we have ever trained. She went from 5lbs weights, elliptical workouts and feeling frustrated with her strength and physique to becoming what is commonly know as in the word of fitness as a ‘beast’. She 100 % trusted in the process. Whether it was training after a 12 hour night shift, following a nutrition program or trying a heavier or more challenging exercise or weight her coach suggested. She was always up for the challenge. This 24K Turkish get-up (for multiple reps at the end of a training session one day…) was just one of the many accomplishments realized by trusting in the process.

3. Successful people believe in themselves.

You must believe in yourself in order to be successful. You also must have a clear direction on WHAT success means to you and WHY it is important. It’s one of the huge motivators for making fitness a part of your life. Your ‘WHY’ will help you make training happen on the days you need an extra push or sitting on the couch drinking a glass of wine seems more appealing…

4. Successful people realize they can not succeed alone.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Guess, what? EVERY member we have worked with over the past 10 years of Taylored Training have also struggled with their weight, their mobility, injuries and a lack of motivation. You are not alone if you have experience one or more of these challenges (yes, even coaches do too!). Having a coach and having a supportive community is absolutely KEY to being successful.

5. Successful people realize there is no wagon.

I read another great article this morning on dieting Here it is. It reminded me why we stand behind having memberships and teaching intermittent fasting versus 6 week bootcamp programs and meal plans that we offered in our earlier years in business. If we can all agree that keeping consistent IS key to success, then finding a sustainable system for your fitness, movement and nutrition is what you need to look for. Crash diets and short-term fitness lead to short-term results. In two decades of fitness, I can be certain of that statement.

I encourage you to take some time to REALLY think about this list today.

Where are you at?

What are you missing?

How are going to act on making a change?

Just remember you can be successful. The first step is believing that you can and then taking these 5 action steps to make it happen!

Today we announced a brand new service at my studio that is starting in March – skin rejuvenation. (PS For more info and details you can CLICK HERE).

I am SO Excited to be launching this new service that aligns with our message and philosophy of preventative, natural and sustainable health care.

While it might seems perhaps ‘out there’, so to did our initial philosophies on barefoot training, non-supplement and whole-food based eating (even though we have been contacted by Isagenix reps too many times to count…) as well as our strong stance on non-machine based fitness and physiotherapy.

So why start offering this new service? How does it align with everything we believe?

Over the past few months we have been working on researching and studying the effects of acupuncture for skin rejuvenation.

We started with treating post-surgery scars in the clinic (for both pain and aesthetic reasons) and then began researching the affects of acupuncture for the treatment for varicose veins, post stroke paralysis, bell’s palsy, acne and facial acupuncture to treat fine lines and wrinkles.

A study of 300 cases treated with cosmetic acupuncture. The results were overwhelming with 90 per cent of cases showing marked improvements with one course of treatment.

Recently I attended the Queen’s University Ted Talks with two of my team members. It was an inspirational and invigorating day with some pretty fantastic speakers, most of whom, I’m proud to say, were female.

As I sat in the audience, having been exposed to many world caliber speakers during my 8 years working for the Queen’s School of Business, I was incredibly impressed by the content, confidence and charisma that was displayed on that stage. One of the speakers, a Taylored Training member, truly knocked it out of the park with an incredible talk on compassion fatigue, a topic that is very near and dear to my heart.

What I couldn’t get over, was how some these incredibly talented and brilliant women were carefully and at time awkwardly navigating the stage in their giant high heels, wearing copious amounts of make-up as they presented their message based on the topic ‘the edge’.

Now when it comes to make-up, I get it. As a former dancer when I was on stage being filmed and performing under the lights it was a necessity, but as I watched these women I couldn’t help but wonder how as women we have gotten to a place where wearing uncomfortable shoes while wearing a mask to cover our own skin is just expected of us?

What made me focus on this aspect of the female presentations, I don’t know, but my guess is that the bright red circular carpet that was placed at the center of the stage really stood out to be visually, but also made me so terrified that one of these incredible women would catch a carpet string and bail hard!

Recently, Harpers Bazar posted this incredible link of top female celebrities going make-up free and I absolutely LOVE this message! Who knew Lady Gaga actually looked like this?! I think she’s even MORE beautiful minus the mask.

While I know that I’m naive to think we can single handedly change the way women feel about their high heels and make-up what we can do is offer a non-surgical, natural an effective way for women to truly embrace the skin they are in!

Similar to taking care and enhancing the way you look with fitness, the same can be said with taking care of our skin! The best way to take care of your body is with quality nutrition and quality training and I think skin rejuvenation celebrates taking care of ourselves in the most natural and self-loving way.

I have competed in many 5K, 10K and half marathons in Kingston, Toronto and Ottawa as well as that one time I decided it would be a good idea to do the Kingston “Limestone Mile” with my friend Steve, whom I should mention is an former Dartmouth athlete and incredible sprinter. It was a humbling experience to say the least.

I tell you all of this to preface my commentary on this fantastic article by Mark Rippetoe because I truly do love running.

I love being outside, I love the sense of accomplishment and I love travelling to cities to explore new places and get in a great workout.

Here’s the BUT.

I don’t run for my fitness, I don’t recommend running for our clients AND I’m going to explain why I transitioned my love of running by returning to a sport I love, tennis.

I sometimes run to my tennis club (mostly when I’m late for a match) but I no longer hit the pavement for races and long runs.

Why?

Long duration running has been a fitness trend for many years now. It is commonly touted as a cheap, easy approach to getting fit. How many times have you heard a friend say, “I want to get back into shape, so I’m going to take up running.”

I get it. It seems like a good idea. Running is cheap, gets you outside, and really shouldn’t we all just know how to run? Isn’t it just a part of our DNA?

I wrote this article commentary because I cannot tell you how many members we have worked with over the years who have come to us with the following problem:

They used to run.

They competed in races and events

They got injured

They had to stop running.

They stopped doing any fitness.

Recently I did a tour with a new member who actually told me her family physician told her she had two options: Continue to run and get a knee replacement in a year or find a different and more sustainable approach to fitness.

THIS is why we are passionate as fitness professional about teaching, educating and coaching our community on the BEST way to train your body. Because I’m here to tell you the truth. There IS a BEST way to train your body for long-term sustainable health and if you are going to dedicate an invest the time in your well-being, don’t you deserve the best?

Sure, like I said, I too loved running, loved the thrill for signing up for races, being outside and grabbing that medal at the finish line but after I started racking up the injuries, I realized how I needed to be smart about taking care of my body and channelled my running into what it is today (running short distances at my studio and playing tennis).

Over the years we have written and talked about running as a method to get fit. We actually wrote this article for the Huffington Post about running as a method to start with getting in shape – Running is not the Best Exercise to Get Fit

This is the full article from Strength Coach Mark Rippetoe –Why You Shouldn’t Run. It is a longer but excellent read. I wanted to take the time to comment and summarize what Mark is saying. Sometimes, I know, strength and fitness professionals tend to forget that what we write makes sense to us but perhaps not everyone out there who doesn’t have years of physiology, anatomy, biomechanics and experience under their belt.

Buckle up. Here we go.

Mark makes some excellent points the first being:

Strength is the ability to produce force with your muscles against an external resistance.

What’s the value in being strong?

We need to be strong for life. Carrying kids, groceries, fighting off illness, being able to be as self-sufficient at age 80 as you were at age 25 …you get where I’m going with this.

You can’t exclusively train endurance (running, cycling, epliticizing…etc) and get stronger. “The more you run, the better you are at running and the worse you are at being strong”.

Endurance training is directly antagonistic to the creation and retention of muscle mass.

Let’s talk about your physique.

From a physique standpoint for anyone out there wanting to tone, look leaner and get nicer arms, without increasing your muscle it’s just not going to happen.

Running, cycling and ‘ellipticalizing’ directly competes for the muscle resources that maintain their size and strength, therefore changing your body composition to more muscle and less body fat isn’t going to happen with endurance cardio.

The reason we’re so concerned with “cardio” is that we’ve become indoctrinated into the belief that activity that elevates the heart rate for an extended period of time is the only way to keep the heart healthy. We need to shift our mindset to realize that doing “cardio” does not mean you must run, bike, elliptical or walk for multiple hours. There are so many other ways to train your cardiovascular system using load bearing activity that will actually enhance your strength, improve your posture and alignment, help your bones get stronger, improve your mobility and increase your muscle mass!

Repetitive motion injuries like tendonitis are quite common in people who engage in high-volume endurance activity.

Probably one of my favourite lines from Mark’s article: “In fact, the term “Sports Medicine” really means the branch of orthopedics that deals with inflamed joints in runners and cyclists.”

Brutally honest but true.

As you hit 18K in a run your repetitive stride mechanics will deteriorate, often to the extent that a joint or several joints are being used improperly. I’ve been there, done that. The typical result is overuse injuries which most commonly include:
– Patella femoral pain
– Iliotibial band friction syndrome
– Achilles tendinopathy
– Stress fractures
– Shin splits
– Hip bursistis
– Muscle strains
– Plantar fasciitis

Just to name a few.

What is my advice?

If you love to run and enjoy time outside find a way to include it in your fitness programming by way of playing a sport you love (tennis, ultimate Frisbee, soccer) or include a healthy dose of running into your fitness. Instead of only running for your fitness try a run or two a week intermixed with a good strength training program and intervals.

We include a lot of running in our fitness programming by way of sprint drills, focusing on direction changes, sprints with jumps and a variety of foot work that is fun, incorporates sprints and runs but also trains the body without the strain of long duration running work.

Same goes for cycling. Have you ever tried the airdyne bike? Even though it looks like something straight out of 1985, it is no joke. Try 30 -60 seconds as fast as you can for interval training and I promise you will feel your heart racing, sweat pouring down your back and 6-8 rounds are truly ‘breath taking’.

My job as a coach is to offer my clients and community the best advice when it comes to taking care of their health and fitness. I want you to be independent at age 80, pick up your grandkids when you take them to the park and not worry about your low back, knee or hip hurting, and I want you to rock out your outfit at the next wedding you attend and feel proud, confident and strong when you hit the dance floor.

And that is why I think this is the best article I’ve ever read about running because perhaps it will make you think about what is best for your body when choosing your training program.

Today I wanted to chat about “Clean Eating” because I’m still a fan even though the term does seem to get demonized in the media these days.

Someone asked me the other day about ‘my take’ on clean eating so I thought I would share.

Clean Eating for me has two components:

Focusing on REAL, WHOLE food. Sure, the odd protein bar or shake can be convenient but to be honest you have to ask yourself why you are choosing to put something into your body that is composed of a lot of hard to pronounce, man made chemicals? Now I have had my fair share of protein shakes and bars over my fitness journey but after taking them out of my diet a few months ago, I can honestly say I really don’t miss them! I actually walked into a supplement store last week and was over whelmed by the artificial smell. It really made me realize that they just isn’t a need to have supplements in my diet and in fact I turned around and walked out of the store. These days if I want something sweet I have a piece of fruit, dark chocolate or one of my favourite cookies from a local bake shop (which by the way smells MUCH better when you walk through the doors).

My Advice:

Instead of grabbing a bar, grab a piece of fruit or some nuts & seeds (and yes, salted are aok)!

Instead of worrying about your post workout window and how quickly you can guzzle down a protein shake, focus more time on getting in lots of water and adding in a few extra minutes to foam roll and stretch!

Instead of focusing on calculating out each gram of carbohydrate you eat and stressing that bananas, potatoes will make you huge, enjoy some fruit, add in complex carbs (rice, homemade breads, quinoa…etc) and be mindful that yes, ‘it is ok’. Heck, I have even recently started incorporating fresh bagels into some of my meals!

2. My clean eating philosophy is very strict. Everything I now eat is 100% clean and free of anxiety, guilt, shame or restriction.

After attending a coding course yesterday I’ve decided it’s time to get back to one of the things I love to do the most as a Coach and Entrepreneur – helping others by providing quality, interesting and fun content!

As I approach 40, as I have changed and evolved over my almost 2 decades in fitness, I do have a lot I want to say!

So what will be my focus?

Teaching, educating and hopefully inspiring women of all ages to not fear fitness, fasting, food and approaching or surpassing the magical age for women, 40!

If you have been over fat, if you have tried every diet and training program under the sun but have never achieved long-term success, than it’s time to leave your past behind and focus on your future;the one in which you achieve all your fitness dreams!

WIth over 15 years of coaching experience, trust me, this is a common obstacle. You can’t focus on the past, how you wish you wouldn’t have let your health go, how you wished you would have started sooner…Start on a new path today!

Find a good coach or a team of coaches who are educated, current and who are focused on helping you achieve your fitness goals!

‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.’

This is probably THE most important concept when it comes to success with fat loss.

Don’t use the scale. It’s not the best way to measure your progress.

Here’s the thing.

Weight on the scale measures your total body composition including your water, muscle and bone mass.

If you lose 10 pounds on the scale, unless you do a body composition test, you might be losing vital muscle and bone.

When people drastically reduce calorie intake it is very common to lose weight on the scale without knowing they are also losing vital muscle and bone mass! *Not good for anyone, but especially women!

In an ideal world, any ‘weight’ loss on the scale would exclusively be body fat (trust me, I wish I could make this happen for you!) but that’s just not the case; especially without the presence of training to increase muscle mass and strength.

This infamous “10 pounds” that everyone wants to lose or that random goal weight that people get so stuck on does the opposite for their fitness goals – it leads to frustration and ultimately giving up, so PLEASE don’t get caught in the scale trap!!!

So how to we measure progress at my studio? With pictures, measurements AND more importantly how much stronger our members feel!